Overview
“Edwards . . . formulates a vital practical theology that challenges Christian communities to live out of a revolutionary social ethicꟷenfleshed counter-memory. Edwards aims to equip Christians with appropriate grounding to create communities of hope and faith in the face of traumatic loss, communities that will build the physical, spiritual, and relational conditions for fruitful living.” ꟷM. Shawn Copeland, professor emerita, theology, Boston College
“In her creative and compelling theological analysis of trauma, Stephanie Edwards offers readers a valuable ethic of lament, social healing, and active resistance. Enfleshed Counter-Memory provides balm and hope for communities in our troubled times.” ꟷKristin E. Heyer, Joseph Professor in Theology, Boston College
“Reminding us that ‘Jesus’s lived ethic was an optics—it matters who we see, to whom we give our attention, who and what we remember,’ Edwards focuses readers’ gaze on the traumatic wounds that mar our individual and collective bodies. . . . This incarnational ethic takes embodied pain and resistance seriously as it casts an inspiring vision for enacting hope and healing.” ꟷJessica Coblentz, author, Dust in the Blood
“Enfleshed Counter-Memory is both urgent and timeless. Stephanie Edwards weaves together theology, ethics, contemporary events, and practice in ways that empower the reader to take action.” ꟷAnnie Selak, director, Women’s Center, Georgetown University
“The best treatment of trauma, its impacts, and the ways of justly responding to these impacts on offer in Christian social ethics. . . . Edwards has given us a gift that can empower all of us to journey together in the shared work of healing ourselves, our communities, and our world.” ꟷJames W. McCarty, PhD, Tom Porter Religion and Conflict Transformation Program, Boston University School of Theology
This powerful work by a social worker and ethicist charts a compelling path of solidarity and healing.
In a world saturated with trauma, where do we turn for healing and hope? Neither downplaying trauma’s devastation nor rushing toward easy redemption, Stephanie Edwards crafts a “Christian ethic of “enfleshed counter-memory” as a framework for grappling with the complexities of personal and collective suffering.
Drawing insights from womanist theology, trauma studies, and the work of Johann Baptist Metz, Edwards constructs an ethic that embraces the incarnational reality of our embodied lives. Enfleshed counter-memory disrupts cultural narratives that demand forgetting, instead calling us to resist oppressive powers by remembering rightly.
For scholars, ministers, students, and all those seeking an embodied Christian response to our wounded world, this book offers a vital resource for the journey ahead.
Stephanie C. Edwards, MSW, PhD, is executive director, Boston Theological Interreligious Consortium (BTI). She is a Catholic ethicist and a social worker, practicing diverse service delivery, grant writing, and nonprofit management for over a decade.
Cover design: Ponie Sheehan
Cover image: squarefrog, Pixabay
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